The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-08
NOTES ABOUTTHE GREAT DOUBTER
AND HOW HE DIED.
The Apostle of India, the Cave Where
He Lived, and the Plain Where He
Preached-How the Kings Palace
Was Built For ETERNITY.

sue, VIII liOb DSiiSNVs
Subsequently at meeting with closed
doors, when Jesus stood suddenly an appa-
rition among His mourning diaciples, He
said to Thomas: ''Reach here your hand.
Thrust it into my side.n After Thomas had
satisfied himself Jesus said: Because you
have seen me, you have believed. Blessed
are they that have not seen and yet have
believed"-John, chapters Xxx. and xxi. In
the Bible record this apostle was therefore
given the title of Didymus, which is the
Greek of doubter, skeptical man. At this
present day Methodist hymn says:
oh, where is doubling Thomas:
Safe in the promised land
Gone up at the feet of Jesus,
Safe in the promised land,
BY and by we will go and see Him,
Safe in the promised land.
There we will sing and shout together,
There we will sing and shout forever,
Safe in the promised land.
Many time have in my childhood helped
to ring out the cadences and repetitions of
that chorus, not forseeing that in Southern
India should surely look down into the now
vacant grave where that apostle lay buried
1900 years. / did not dream that on sui
try tropic morning | should walk over miles
of the ground that was part of his mission
airy field, and should follow the road where
his followers walked bearing his body after
the martyrdom that should hear q chorus
of the Indian ocean surf roaring and foam
ing and breaking upon the shore while an
Indian convert to the religion of Christ and
the twelve apostles told me the tradition OF
st. Thomas grave.
Excursions within the torrid zone must be
made early in the morning or else when the
sun is again low in the afternoon. This lit
tie tour had been mentioned the day before
but evidently nobody was remembering it,
This was to be my last day in Madras for
the present Not being able to use the
speech of the country to bargain for vehi-
Gle, the sun already on his upward round, an
urgent case, started off with only spread
umbrella as my companion. Not anticipat
ing the blistered toes which lasted for a
weelS--but what of that, when ! learned so
much and found it so interesting and en-
gaging that did not know of my toes con-
dition until the next day. crossed the Adj
gar river, and followed the pleasant road
which is the landward winding and south
erly end of a several miles drive and prom
enade, of which am told that the world
has truly few or none other SUCH Solid
great public buildings within gardens of
trees and shrubbery make one side. On the
other rolls against the shore the celebrated
dangerous surf of Madras in three consecu-
tive parallel silvered lines.
Madras isa city built in groups, with semi
rural acres between. In the quarter called
st Thome" church is built over the VEN
Grated place where st. Thomas was buried
and where his body lay for l 200 years. In
one of the ante-rooms of the church the lift
ing of trap-door discloses hole which has
been empty 500 years 1t has become IL feet
deep by two causes-a change in the level
of the surrounding land during the 1900
years since the apostle was there inferred,
but more it has been deepened by pilgrims
who priced the very soil that was the bed
where St. Thomas body rested for more
than a thousand years, and each pilgrim
carried away one handful of sand as tails
man.
In locked cupboard in the same ante
room is preserved the broken-off point of
the spear that was the instrument of his
martyrdom on Dec. 81, A. d. 68. The In
dian priest who told me most of the details
gave them as traditions only, adding that in
India tradition is peculiarly method of
transmitting history. st. Thomas apos-
tolic work is told in a poem of fifty lines
translated and paraphrased from the Latin
of the medieval Christian fathers.
Build well, nor spare of my wealth to show
A prouder palace than mortals know
The king took leave of his kingdom then.
And wandered far from the haunts of men.
st. Thomas the king great treasure spent
In worthier way than his master meant.
He clad the naked, the hungry fed,
He blessed them all with the ample store
AS never kings wealth blessed before.
The king came back to his well-spent gold
But no new palace did he behold.
In terrible he swore and said
That the builders folly should cost his head.
st. Thomas and ST. Bartholomew were the
apostles of the far East They came together
to India, after the Saviour's last command
go We into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature OF the pointed
Hindu peninsula the west side is called ''the
Malabar coast" and the east is called s'the
Coromandel coast Bartholomew took the
Malabar side 1t is rainy and mountain
Gus. st. Thomas took the Madrasian plain
1t is dry and sunny. They itinerated a great
deal and founded many churches. st
Thomas sermons are told of to this day as
being delivered on both the Malabar anc
the Coromandel coasts for Bartholomew anc
Thomas used to exchange" / suppose like
modern preachers.
Two isolated mounts, three miles apart
rise out of the great plain on whose sea edge
stands Madras. Each is called "St. Thomas
mount but as, by comparison, one is
big and the other is less, the one is generally
called at Madras EST, Thomas mount
and the other is called Tn,
Little mount" They are properly termed
mount, and not mountain, because both are
so small as to be easily reconnoitered; lik,
some Mississippi river cliffs IL they were
suddenly detached from their surroundings
Southern Hindustan has many SUCH They
are supposed to be geological monuments
made by the wear and tear OF the storms OF
ages, slowly disintegrating and washing
away the ridge or other earth formations
that once were of their top level
In the Little mount" is the cave where
Thomas Didymus lived. There are indent
ures that were made by his knees in his FIRE
quent prayers, and by his hands in his alsc
frequent prostrations. The cave has a Grew,
ice through which he got out when the per
secntors came Being then an old man who
could not run fast, he was directly overtaker
and was fatally pierced with spear.
''The Big mount has a cliff, with draw.
ings on it that were made by St. Thomas
Upon the large rock he scratched the out
lines of large cross and the figure of th,
virgin mother and dove, emblematic b
the Holy Spirit. After he was left for deaC
with painful exertions he managed TO reach
this favorite spot, where, at the foot of th,
cross, he died.
His friends caught up his body and by tn,
light OF the stars ana the moon, which /;
wonderfully bright here, they lovingly bor'
the lifeless likeness of their teacher six mile
70 this place by the seashore, now in Madra,
city, and buried it. This was then a wilc